Journey with Spirit

Does Jesus' Image Need a Makeover?

What would Jesus do today to clarify his role in the modern movement toward blending historical religion and personal spirituality? Would he shake up conventional wisdom about himself to create a new way to view his life?

A modern-day spin doctor might say that Jesus has an image problem.

Some people view Jesus as the gifted healer and teacher who inspired a faith revolution based on his spiritual sayings and his bucking of ancient conventional wisdom. Others question whether Jesus, as the son of God, actually existed because of the incredible feats attributed to him, including feeding the multitudes from only a few fish and loaves of bread, walking on water and experiencing resurrection. Debates among scholars and fundamentalists over Jesus the historical religious figure versus Jesus the spiritual being further add to his image problem.

What would Jesus do today to clarify his role in the modern movement toward blending historical religion and personal spirituality?

Over the past 20 years, theological views in the U.S. have slowly become less aligned with the Bible, according to Barna Research Group, a California-based Christian marketing research company. More Americans have adopted and integrated spiritual views from many faith traditions. Research findings show that 44 percent of the population believes that the Bible, the Koran and the Book of Mormon are all different expressions of the same spiritual truths.

Trend Toward Personal Truth

The trend toward interpreting religion and the Bible through a personal, spiritual lens is on the rise. More than half of Americans believe that truth can be discovered only through logic, human reasoning and personal experience, Barna found. This perspective opposes the traditional Protestant belief in the Bible as the source of truth and the Catholic tenet that the Bible and papal authority convey truth.

What would Jesus do about the dilemma of the changing role of the Bible and the growing need of the multitudes for spiritual nourishment?

Jesus knew the Hebrew Bible well, but he was a rebel scripture teacher. He used scripture as a means to remind people of the loving heart of God dwelling within them instead of as a way to enforce ancient purity laws. In the New Testament, the gospels portray Jesus both in human form as well as in spirit, depicting an historical man as well as a mystical, powerful being having spiritual experiences among ancient people.

I will guide you to a mystical story about Jesus.

The gospel writers present Jesus in four very different ways: intellectually, physically, emotionally and spiritually. Matthew presents logic and a fact-based view of the life of Jesus. His gospel appeals to our intellectual view of the world, allowing us to mentally know the heart of Jesus. Mark wrote of Jesus in more physical terms, giving concrete facts that place Jesus in an historical context. Luke wrote from a more emotional perspective, inviting us into the world of Jesus through language that moves us to joy, sadness and anger. John’s mystical version completes the circle of knowing Jesus by linking us spiritually into the supernatural connection Jesus held with God.

Gospels Fill a Personal Need

The gospels fill a need within Christians to experience the life of Jesus completely— intellectually, physically, emotionally and spiritually. We encompass all of these aspects, and we come to know Jesus more fully by experiencing him on all of these levels. But the mixture of fact and spirituality in the Bible is the main source of Jesus’ image problem, which has lead to the pursuit of the historical Jesus to clear up the confusion.

What would Jesus do? In the past, he quoted scriptures in a new way to highlight the cosmic God-human-nature connection, but today would he shake up conventional wisdom about himself to create a new way to view his life?

According to biblical scholar Marcus Borg, to keep Jesus from being unreal, it’s crucial to distinguish between the “pre-Easter” historical figure of Jesus and the “post-Easter” Jesus of the Christian experience and tradition. During his life, the pre-Easter Jesus was a Jewish mystic and healer, an enlightened wisdom teacher and a social prophet. After his death, Christians throughout the centuries have experienced the post-Easter Jesus as a living reality through personal spiritual connection and religious tradition. Since the New Testament was written after Jesus’ death, Borg points out that both the pre-Easter and post-Easter stories about Jesus are combined throughout the Bible, creating confusion about the image of Jesus.

Using Borg’s scholarly distinctions, we can identify both aspects of Jesus in the Bible: his powerful, short ministry on Earth and his real, eternal presence in Christian life today. But if people are no longer seeking spiritual answers based solely on the Bible, religious doctrine or the teachings of religious leaders, where does that leave Jesus, who we mainly know through scripture?

What would Jesus do? Would he encourage the evolutionary blending of religion and spirituality? Would he encourage us to overturn religious and societal conventions that oppress people spiritually and politically, and instead follow his historical model for creating tangible works of God in the world? Would he ask us to follow his own deep spiritual path to access our own inner wisdom to heal the self first and then the socio-political issues of society?

I will guide you to seeing Jesus as eternal in the inspirational web movie
The Light of the World.

Jesus the rebel teacher, a man of great heart and compassion, never stayed in one place within one strata of society. Jesus was always on the move, traveling all roads and touching the hearts of all people. The path of spiritual growth and social action Jesus traveled can be broken down into seven modern steps for blending religious themes with a personal experience of spirituality:

Let go of past hurts that inhibit your natural compassion.
Reconnect with your own inner wisdom.
Disconnect from conventional wisdom and follow your heart.
Connect with the powerful energy of God to support your spiritual work.
Discover your higher purpose and create a plan of action.
Live life as a master teacher would.
Influence others to begin their own spiritual growth journeys.

In the gospel of John, we are reminded that we can achieve the same spiritual growth and effect the same social change as Jesus did. To follow his mastery path, we can study the historical Jesus and praise the works of the spiritual Jesus, but we still may end up questioning the existence and veracity of both. In the end, it is up to each of us to discover the mystery and majesty of the path of Jesus and to live it ourselves. Walking the same powerful path as Jesus, we learn through personal experience how to discover spiritual truth and make a difference in the world.

To Change or Not to Change

Is the image of Jesus in the modern world really a problem as a spin doctor might say?

I will guide you to affirm your connection with the spiritual Jesus in In the Silence.

Jesus is a blessed mixture of hope and history, faith and fact, and love and lore. His powerful historical acts were performed as a part of his deeply spiritual journey. As with all great spiritual masters, Jesus still keeps us thinking about what he would do.

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